It is clear that, as a result of this edict, a vast number of swords were brought into the market. Naturally enough, as collectors had not then discovered the tsuba, countless sword-guards were thrown into the melting-pot. Later, when European, American, and Japanese connoisseurs came to rescue the tsuba from oblivion, the native craftsmen, still possessors of a recent heritage of skill, fell to making sword-guards for the market. Yet even these late nineteenth-and, one must suspect, twentieth-century tsuba are often beautiful, ingenious, and interesting enough to be desirable acquisitions on their own account. In a land where the regard for the honor of the sword had evolved an etiquette and almost a religion it is not strange that the art-loving nation which conceived this regard should have applied its finest ability to the decoration of the sword accessories, until finally these became veritable treasure-troves recording the history and traditions of the country as well as its symbolism and even its physical aspect. The “furniture” of a Japanese sword consists primarily of the tsuba, or guard,--a circular or oval (sometimes square and occasionally irregular) piece of metal, with a triangular aperture to receive the sword-blade. On each side is a smaller opening to receive the top of each of the two smaller implements that accompany many of the Japanese swords--the _kozuka_ or handle of the short dagger, or _kokatana_, and the _kogai_, a skewer-shaped instrument. After the tsuba or sword-guard come the smaller ornaments placed one on each side of the hilt to enable the wielder of the sword to have a firmer grasp of it. These small metal ornaments are called _menuki_. We find them, too, on the scabbards of swords, especially on the daggers or _wakizashi_. Of great beauty and interest are the _kashira_, metal caps fitting the heads of the sword-handles, secured in place by means of cords laterally placed. The _fuchi_ are oval rings through which the blade passes; they encircle the bases of the handles where the blade is secured. The _kurikata_ are cleats for securing the cords (_sageo_) which held back the warrior’s sleeve whilst he was fighting. And finally there is the _kojiri_, the metal endpiece of the scabbard. There is not one of the ornamental decorations of a Japanese sword that would not have awakened the admiration and envy of Benvenuto Cellini. And to think that after the edict of 1877 there were, literally, millions of them relegated to the rubbish heaps of the Japanese junkmen! Too few of the menuki escaped being melted up. Theirs is a fascination difficult to resist; but the tsuba more directly engages our attention for the present, and the smaller ornaments have been referred to here only in order that the reader may have some suggestion of their relationship to the tsuba.